The Relativity of the Subject of Truth in Alain Badiou’s Philosophy

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Candidate of Philosophy, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Philosophy Department, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Badiou offers a concept of the subject that is completely intertwined with event and truth; in his view, the subject is not an isolated and secluded entity that is supposed to contemplate the world only, rather it is linked to the event, and as a faithful element, initiates the process of truth. Every human being is not necessarily a subject, but in the face of an event and the acceptance of its occurrence, the person in the situation can become the subject. For Badiou, the subject is only part of the process of truth, and this reduces the subject to a part of a material process that has no existential independence. He explicitly states that the subject subordinates to the truth and considers the subjectification of some members of the situation as the result of the occurrence of an event and the beginning of the process of truth. The authors are of the view that Badiou's theory of the subject eventually leads to the relativity of the subject and makes it impossible to provide any explanation about the existence of the subject. He considers truth to be not general but dependent on any particular situation in which the event takes place; again, in his view, truth has a general proclamation and address. But in the authors' view, his type of explanation of the subject also makes the generality of the proclamation of truth relative and so, the truth cannot be generic anymore.

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References

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations
Volume 16, Issue 41 - Serial Number 41
Special Issue
English Special Issue: Philosophy of Education
2023
Pages 242-256

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